Hi

Just posting this to share what happened to my min poodle Tilly. She was born in 2011 and duly got chipped with her 2nd puppy vaccination which she had done at my local vets.

Shortly afterwards they wrote to me saying that she was given a chip that had been identified as coming from a faulty batch. I recall taking her to the vets and when they scanned her, the chip was located by the scanner.

Fast forward to today when she went for a booster and yearly check up, lo and behold the chip had failed but I do not know when this happened. Could have been anytime over the last 12 months.

A few months ago, she done a runner when some kids left my back gate open! I found her after half an hour but was reassured somewhat that if she was picked up she could be traced back to me. I felt a bit uneasy today as I realised that may not have been so easy if the failure had happened around this time.

She was re-chipped again today and I've had an email from Petlog inviting me to upgrade for an extra £16 so I can make future amendments which I think I will take advantage of.

The law was recently changed that all dogs have to be chipped, so I suppose it could be argued that this wasn't the case with Tilly even though I believed she was

In future, rather than rely on yearly checks I will take all my dogs for a 6 monthly check in future for their chips or even less, I would be distraught if they ever went missing.

Are there any guaranties that come with a microchip, or recourse should one fail?

One of my dogs has an Avid chip which is faulty. It was reading just three times out of ten passes the last time it was checked. The vet was a bit noncommittal, and says that unless it is either removed, or fails completely, there is not much that we can do, as a second chip could just create confusion. My lad is nearly nine, and has been a competition obedience dog, so there is little chance of him straying, but there is always the chance of something unpredictable happening. I can't say that I am happy with the situation as it is.

Hm well I took 3 dogs for eye testing last month. All 3 had been chipped by myself, and checked many times. The oldest is 10. Vet scanned him, found nothing. Changed the battery in the scanner, found nothing. Tried a different scanner, found nothing. Then chipped him again. As soon as I came home I got my own scanner out and yep, now he has TWO perfectly readable chips.

How worrying!   I realise that once in, a 'chip wouldn't be easily removed but I REALLY don't like the idea of all that inside my hounds.  Coming from somebody who wasn't totally convinced about microchipping (especially my Whippet!) in the first place!!  I wonder why vets don't routinely check these, when a patient goes in for something else.   I had my Basset checked since, but not my Whippet who will be going back re her corn next week - so I'll get her checked then.

And this 'extra £16' just smacks of a nice little earner for Petlog.   I see no reason for them to make this charge.

>Are there any guaranties that come with a microchip, or recourse should one fail?

Virbac chips (registered with Petlog) are guaranteed for life. That doesn't mean that they're guaranteed never to fail - no company can guarantee that - but it means a failed one will be replaced free of charge.

Chips can be easily removed.  I have the misfortune to have known for quite a while, someone who is very much of the 'once bitten, twice shy' variety and one of her dogs had a bad reaction to her chip; the vets refused to agree or remove it and the dog went through absolute hell with an ongoing severe reaction, which took months to heal after they finally did remove it.

Consequently, her other chipped dog had his removed as she is now certain that any of her dogs that have a chip will react to it, and last I knew, the other one was not going to be chipped.  I've heard that she's just got a new one, and she'd kept a new one before I cut contact, so both of those will be under the knife for it if they haven't already been.

Very minor operation, for the second dog it was done while he was under for something else.  Not difficult at all.

There are two dogs in my breed whose chips have failed and they've been unable to travel on the ferry to the UK. Mine is a numerically small breed (less than 70 dogs in the two countries the dogs came from), one dog was chipped in the UK and one in the Netherlands, with different manufacturers and 5 years in-between.

It's made me really think about my back up options when travelling to shows overseas. The UK dog whose chip failed, it failed the dog show weekend, chip was working on the Thursday and not working by the Saturday. She had to be left with friends in the Netherlands to be re-chipped, re-vaccinated for rabies and then wait 3 weeks before she could come home.

It is possible to have two chips recorded on your pet passport, a backup in case the 1st fails.

Edited to add, here's the story from the UK silken whose chip failed, it was such a traumatic time at the terminal but luckily good friends of mine (the breeders of my youngest silken) kindly stepped up and volunteered to look after the bitch till she could come home. When they were coming to a show in the UK earlier in the year they'd had to leave a dog behind because of the same problem.

Has anyone come across migrating chips? I heard of one dog whose chip, inserted between the shoulder blades, now only registers if you scan the top of her leg!

Yes migrating chips is far from uncommon and has always been known.which causes problems of the while body isn't scanned  The latest
news story was a chip found in the brain and killed the dog if the story is true. But general migration is true
i think with the increase of chipping more and more problems will be found  but doubt if there will be any real attempts at solving the problems.

Well our most recent litter pups chipped at 6 weeks.

Pup went to it's  home,  and their vet couldn't find chip.  The company Rep checked,  no chip.

They rechipped the pup,  who subsequently changed homes.

I'm not on his new chip documentation,  even though I contacted Pet log asking the two chips to be linked.

I did put the new chip and new owner details against the old one,  which is cross referenced with KC reg.

New owners,  who just lost a dog of my breeding have asked Petlog to add my details as breeder,  but who knows,  as I have no access to that chips info.

Worse still this was the first litter I did not have ear tattooed.  The previous litter I did both.

My boy's faulty chip is now somewhere in the area of his left shoulder - so would not just be a quick nick and squeeze job to remove. The best option seems to be to wait till it fails completely, then re-chip.

All this, apart from being worrying (again as if I wasn't anti to begin with) has me thinking about what was, and wasn't, seen on x-ray with my Basset, recently.   He had a fuzzy mass at the top of his spine and it was said he really should probably have an MRI scan done.  Quite honestly I can't afford the four-figure sum I was quoted and as my vet said, what then - where to begin with surgery, given what was showing on x-ray.   BUT and I have thought about this since, is the 'fuzzy mass' to do with his microchip?   I may be well off in this as it's all new to me   but ..... ?

Incidentally, what took me to having him x-ray'd recently (lameness that day) hasn't happened again since he's been on Metacam and pain killing meds (now off that and on a reduced dose of Metacam).   So I'm going with him on a day to day basis.

I had something similar some years back - I had the letter saying 2 of my dogs had chips in the faulty batch, I went to the vet and they were both working fine. A year or two on we were at the Club health testing day and they couldn't find the chip at all on one of them! In the end I had her rechipped as my vet couldn't find it either. Fast forward another year and the health testing day again and guess what - TWO chips now registering!! Since then it's been the second chip they have found again, but it does niggle at me that there are faulty bits of electronics floating around inside my dog!

The story about the Chi that died of brain damage is true. The report and the X-ray image can be found on the Vet Times website.
I am generally in favour of the permanent identification of dogs, but I would like to think that those companies which have benefitted by the spectacular windfall of having their product declared compulsory, take note of the prolems, and work to rectify them.

>The latest news story was a chip found in the brain and killed the dog if the story is true.
>The story about the Chi that died of brain damage is true.

It's important to make it clear that this wasn't a migrating chip: the report says that the implanter accidentally inserted the chip into the dog's brain. Anything inserted into an animal's brain will kill it, not just a microchip.

How on earth do you accidentally insert anything into the brain?

I'm seriously considering having my litters tattooed instead of microchipped.....this last litter I had microchipped and the certificates didn't arrive before they went to their new homes. It's not an issue to post them on but I like to hand over all the documentation at the time they leave.

If any of the new owners want to travel abroad they can go ahead and have the puppy microchipped, if they aren't traveling then they have the tattoo.

I've made enquiries re tattooing and I'm waiting for a reply.

Unfortunately that is no longer a choice, and is what I did for all but my last litter.,

Since April 2016 it has been compulsory to have all dogs microchipped, and puppies must be mictochipped by the breeder with their details by 8 weeks.

A breeder can get a certificate on health grounds from their vet to postpone, but must be doen before they leave for new homes.

I thought it was any permanent form of ID....if tattoos aren't accepted as the only form of ID there's no point, I'll have to stick with microchips.

I believe it was a 'lay person' who inserted the chip rather than a qualified vet.

Still tragic though X

Awful thing to happen but it does put a different slant in the story as I was under the impression it had migrated. Whoever it was should have been properly trained.pretty big error :(

Microchip story. It turns out that it wasn't fatal. The mistake happened because it was inserted into the back of the neck (and therefore accessed the skull) instead of between the shoulders.

Having had the training along with my husband on how to correctly implant chips, I realise that most of the vet personnel chipped incorrectly as if giving a vaccination.